Joe was mocked relentlessly on social media for being the only world leader to wear a mask during a virtual climate summit. Who can forget the viral image:
Old, slow Joe Biden seems to have no idea how and when to use a mask. Here he is ALL ALONE wearing a mask on a Zoom call. Notice none of the 15 other world leaders are wearing a mask: pic.twitter.com/dUDEZirSHu
— MARK SIMONE (@MarkSimoneNY) April 23, 2021
During Monday’s press briefing, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki was asked about it.
“Why was President Biden the only world leader at the Climate Summit Zoom who was wearing a mask?” Fox News’ Peter Doocy asked.
“Because he is sending a message to the world that he is putting in place precautions and continuing to do that as leader of the United States,” Psaki claimed. “And I don’t know what setups they all had in their countries — that may warrant some more reporting or not. But obviously, he had a pool there for portions. There were additional staff there, additional personnel. And that’s the sort of model that we try to keep ourselves to here.”
It’s an amusing explanation, but, as the reporter noted, “the CDC’s website and their guidance is that you can gather indoors with fully vaccinated people without wearing a mask or staying six feet apart.”
“That’s actually for — in your private home,” Psaki claimed. “So it’s not workplace guidance.”
Umm, really? The CDC guidance states that fully vaccinated people can “Visit with other fully vaccinated people indoors without wearing masks or physical distancing” and “Visit with unvaccinated people (including children) from a single household who are at low risk for severe COVID-19 disease indoors without wearing masks or physical distancing.” The guidance makes no distinction between home and workplace settings for this guidance.
Bottom line: Joe Biden is fully vaccinated. I suspect many if not all of the people working around him also got priority vaccinations. Even if they didn’t, he could have remained socially distant from those in the room during the virtual summit. Heck, I can go maskless indoors at a restaurant as long as I’m sitting down. So, clearly, Biden was fully able to go maskless, but he didn’t.
And he looked ridiculous, and made America look ridiculous.
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